Army on alert vs NPA attacks in NCotabato

NORTH COTABATO — The military is on alert for retaliatory attacks by the New People’s Army for losses in skirmishes with government forces the past three days in hinterland towns in North Cotabato.

The spate of clashes in the adjoining towns of Magpet, Arakan and President Roxas from Monday until late Thursday erupted when NPAs entered farming villages there, causing panic among residents.

Captain Silver Belvis, spokesman of the Army’s 39th Infantry Battalion, said on Friday that soldiers also foiled a plan by the NPAs to lay improvised explosive devices along farm trails in Barangay Balite in Magpet.

Personnel of the 39th IB are deployed in strategic areas in Magpet, Arakan and President Roxas to help the police maintain law and order in the local communities.

Soldiers and militiamen recovered about 15 kilograms of improvised explosive devices and booby traps from the NPAs they encountered in Barangay Balite, whose residents they subject to periodic collection of money and grain.

The explosives were left by the NPAs as they fled in haste carrying four wounded companions.

Another group of NPAs also fired at an Army detachment in Barangay Labuo in President Roxas late Thursday, sparking a gunfight.

Belvis said the NPAs tried, but failed, to breach the defense perimeter of the detachment when guards returned fire with assault rifles and grenades.

No one was hurt from among the soldiers and militiamen in the detachment but the bursts of automatic gunfire and explosions scared residents in nearby villages.

“We are anticipating more attacks by the NPA to retaliate for their slain and wounded companions,” Belvis said.

Marauding NPAs killed Joel Batawan, a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit, in an ambush early Thursday in Barangay Santo Niño in Arakan.